LACE FROM BEER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1941, Page 6

LACE FROM BEER

HELPING TO PAY FOR WAR. Beautiful hand-made lace from the cottages of England’s country villages | is the latest fashion among American women. In the tiny Devonshire village jof Beer, where lace-making has been carried on for 400 years, orders from the United States are helping the inhabitants to keep going in wartime. Many of these lace-makers, as skilful as any in the world, are over 80 years of age. Mrs Ida Allen, who has been in the craft for 50 years, has made lace for the present Queen, Queen Mary and Queen Alexandra. A forebear of hers made the lace for Queen Victoria’s wedding dress. It cost £lOOO. Side by side with the cottage branch of this industry, the great modern lace mills of Nottingham continue, despite the war, to create new desgins for •overseas. From the United States and Canada comes a demand for’tailorededged, double-border curtains by the pair in small, neat effects and fancy Tuscan grounds. Fisher nets, in a heavy combination weave, strongly woven, are being made for Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, while the Far East is being sent cheap-coloured nets by the yard, mainly in cotton.

Mosquito and filet nets are made for Palestine and for Egypt, where there is also a big demand for* “tour-de-lits,” a cheap form of drapery used by the natives.